my foray into sewing vintage

well, i am between custom orders at the moment so i have a little window to start on my first clothing project which i've had waiting in the wings for a while now. i keep having to psych myself up: i am ready for this! there's the pajama pants with the elastic waist i made in high school and i managed to help (or at least i thought i was helping) my granny make my 50's style prom dress so it's about time i tried something completely on my own.

now i've decided on this robe for specific reasons that will make it an easy (easier?) first project. i figured the robe isn't too structured, doesn't have pleats or difficult closures, and if the fit is just a smidge off, no one is really going to notice on a loose fitting garment such as this. of course it's for john and he helped to pick it out so it's not like i'm forcing him to wear my garish creations, ha. all we need to do now is get him a pipe, a stalwart canine companion, and an edition of the saturday evening post to complete the look...if i can get him to model the robe when it's done, you better believe i'll do my darndest to set that up!

it took us forever to find a flannel plaid that we liked and after looking every single time at joann's for months we finally found the above fabric on sale! the plaid does add a dimension of difficulty though as one must be sure to cut all the pattern pieces the same way so that the stripes match up on the final piece. luckily these vintage sewing books that i have a copy of tell all about this!

if you are thinking of working with a vintage pattern i have another great resource to share which i stumbled upon at casey's elegant musings and it's all about preparing and tracing your vintage pattern so that you can use it and preserve it!

with that, i'm off to get started and i'll keep you posted on my progress...assuming that progress and not hair pulling is what actually happens ;)